S!
Yes, good to test various settings. This is how I did it as well. The "jaggy" rivers is no real show stopper for me, as again I am not there to look at the rivers or water
But it is true SuperSample AA setting helps with it.
The thing with Effects-setting. If using 10.1's without the Effects=1 you are almost certain to get graphical anomalies when explosions or gun fire near the planes. When at 1, then nothing. So is this setting tied to lighting as well on surfaces etc?
Catalyst AI. I keep it always off, it reduces FPS in IL-2, easily measured in The Black Death for example. Having it off gives a few extra FPS. Funnily enough Catalyst AI is required with some DLL's (IL2 ones, not ATI) to get rid of the terrain showing up as flickering and distorted squares. The latest 13.3.2008 DLL's work without Catalyst AI with decent perfromance. On par with the 9.2.2008 ones, very slight difference.
I also run 1920x1200 as having 16:10 scale 24" screen. My FPS in black death with current settings with VSync on is min 23 max 72 avg 53 FPS. Without VSync the minimum is the same, maximum 200+ and average around 82 FPS. I run now an AMD rig instead of Intel, just for the fun of it